“Sticky invasion” – the physical properties of Plantago lanceolata L. seed mucilage

• Agnieszka Kreitschitz,
• Alexander Kovalev and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1918–1927, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.183

• characteristic of plants that grow in dry or disturbed habitats [1][3]. The presence of mucilage results in different benefits for the plant including (1) fixation of diaspores to the ground, (2) water supply essential for germinating an embryo or (3) egzo- and endozoochoric dispersal by animals [1][2][3

Biomechanics of selected arborescent and shrubby monocotyledons

• Tom Masselter,
• Tobias Haushahn,
• Samuel Fink and
• Thomas Speck

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1602–1619, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.154

• plants. To date, while the variation of physical properties from top to base and centre to periphery, as well as the underlying structural features, are well known in many dicotyledonous trees [1], these property shifts are still hardly studied in tree-like monocotyledons. This knowledge deficit is

• largely caused by a lack of interest for empirical data for monocotyledon stems and is a result of their insignificance as constructional material in many (industrialized) countries with the major exception of bamboo culms [2]. Results for physical properties of dicot plants cannot be transferred to

• investigations on the branching mechanics of “woody” monocots. In addition, these data can be incorporated in finite element models at cell and tissue level that mirror the anisotropy and the stress–strain behaviour of the investigated plants at stem level [6][7]. This allows for a deepened understanding of the

Development of adsorptive membranes by confinement of activated biochar into electrospun nanofibers

• Mehrdad Taheran,
• Mitra Naghdi,
• Satinder K. Brar,
• Emile Knystautas,
• Mausam Verma,
• Rao. Y. Surampalli and
• Jose. R. Valero

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1556–1563, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.149

• concentration in feed stream was set to 200 ppb since the reported values for the influent and effluents of wastewater treatment plants ranged from 1.2 ppb in municipal wastewater to 32 ppm in pharmaceutical wastewater [32][33][34]. Therefore, the studied concentrations were reasonably in the relevant

Surface roughness rather than surface chemistry essentially affects insect adhesion

• Matt W. England,
• Tomoya Sato,
• Makoto Yagihashi,
• Atsushi Hozumi,
• Stanislav N. Gorb and
• Elena V. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1471–1479, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.139

• the past decade [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. There are countless examples of functional surfaces inspired by plants, such as lotus leaves [5][13] and the pitchers of carnivorous plants [9][14] that can be used to tune the wetting/de-wetting properties of surfaces on various substrates

• and experimental designs were used. In some of these studies, insect species that are strongly specialized to host plants whose leaf surfaces have very specific surface energies (water CA about 80°), such as the beetle Galerucella nympheae which lives on the leaf surface of the water lily, the maximum

Influence of ambient humidity on the attachment ability of ladybird beetles (Coccinella septempunctata)

• Lars Heepe,
• Jonas O. Wolff and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1322–1329, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.123

• as water condensation became visible on the substrate or moistening of substrate and/or pad surface ([14][56] and this study). In nature, animals are constantly exposed to certain humidity. Most of insects live on plants containing a humid boundary layer in the vicinity of the plant surface. The

Fabrication and characterization of branched carbon nanostructures

• Sharali Malik,
• Yoshihiro Nemoto,
• Hongxuan Guo,
• Katsuhiko Ariga and
• Jonathan P. Hill

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1260–1266, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.116

• recently, Masselter et al. have correlated the functional morphology of branching in plants with mechanical behavior and concluded that the concepts generated have a high potential for implementation in the development of branched fiber-reinforced technical composites [16]. With respect to electrical and

Voltammetric determination of polyphenolic content in pomegranate juice using a poly(gallic acid)/multiwalled carbon nanotube modified electrode

• Refat Abdel-Hamid and
• Emad F. Newair

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1104–1112, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.103

• phenolic content; Introduction Gallic acid (GA) is a natural polyphenolic compound found in fruits, vegetables and several other plants [1]. The study of the role of GA in providing better therapeutic outcomes against arsenic-induced toxicity showed that GA is effective against arsenic-induced oxidative

Templated green synthesis of plasmonic silver nanoparticles in onion epidermal cells suitable for surface-enhanced Raman and hyper-Raman scattering

• Marta Espina Palanco,
• Klaus Bo Mogensen,
• Marina Gühlke,
• Zsuzsanna Heiner,
• Janina Kneipp and
• Katrin Kneipp

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 834–840, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.75

• demonstrate a templated green preparation of enhancing plasmonic nanoparticles and suggest a new route to deliver silver nanoparticles as basic building blocks of plasmonic nanosensors to plants by the uptake of solutions of metal salts. Keywords: biotemplates; green preparation; onion; plasmonic

• the last decade, so-called “green synthesis” came into the focus of interest, since many molecules typically available in biological living matter have the capability to reduce silver and gold salts. It has been demonstrated that plants and also microorganisms such as algae, fungi, yeasts, and

• bacteria provide chemicals suitable for the preparation of metal nanoparticles [13][14]. For example, different parts of plants contain polysaccharides, phenolics, or flavonoids, to mention only a few compounds, which could serve as reducing and also stabilizing agents. The preparation of silver and gold

Comparative kinematical analyses of Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) snap traps

• Simon Poppinga,
• Tim Kampowski,
• Amélie Metzger,
• Olga Speck and
• Thomas Speck

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 664–674, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.59

• Centre for Interactive Materials and Bio-Inspired Technologies (FIT), Georges-Köhler-Allee 105, 79110 Freiburg, Germany 10.3762/bjnano.7.59 Abstract Although the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) can be considered as one of the most extensively investigated carnivorous plants, knowledge is still scarce

• evolved a remarkable trapping system that functions as well in air as under water, and which can be considered as an optimized system for nutrient acquisition of a carnivorous plant growing in seasonally inundated habitats. Similar reports on carnivorous plants with traps functioning under different

• our understanding of this (in)famous carnivore and opens up novel perspectives for future studies. Experimental Plant material We analyzed healthy, well-watered and potted adult D. muscipula plants as well as half-year-old seedlings, all cultivated in a temperate greenhouse of the Botanic Garden

Cantilever bending based on humidity-actuated mesoporous silica/silicon bilayers

• Christian Ganser,
• Gerhard Fritz-Popovski,
• Roland Morak,
• Parvin Sharifi,
• Benedetta Marmiroli,
• Barbara Sartori,
• Heinz Amenitsch,
• Thomas Griesser,
• Christian Teichert and
• Oskar Paris

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 637–644, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.56

• is to increase the number of adsorbed molecules by increasing the total interaction area of molecules with the surface. This leads to the concept of using bilayer structures, with one of the layers having a large accessible (internal) surface area. In the natural world of plants for instance

• , humidity-induced bending of bilayer structures is frequently used for actuation purposes. Prominent examples are the opening of tree cones [5], or the complex movement of the dispersal units of wild wheat [6] and ice plants [7]. In all these systems the movement is caused by the bending of bilayer

Novel roles for well-known players: from tobacco mosaic virus pests to enzymatically active assemblies

• Claudia Koch,
• Fabian J. Eber,
• Carlos Azucena,
• Alexander Förste,
• Stefan Walheim,
• Thomas Schimmel,
• Alexander M. Bittner,
• Holger Jeske,
• Hartmut Gliemann,
• Sabine Eiben,
• Fania C. Geiger and
• Christina Wege

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 613–629, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.54

• -programmed to produce many thousands of virus copies. Viruses have been discovered in virtually all types of organisms, with numerous well-characterized species adapted to animals, plants, fungi, or prokaryotic bacteria or archaea. As they may have an enormous impact on the physiological status and health of

• methods in plants used as bioreactors [181] may be expected to promote the integration of viral nanocarriers in diagnostic systems and biosensor devices. Among those, the rigid TMV rods excel in their stable adjustable shape and durability. After simple conjugation of biotin linkers, they could be

• biological/biochemical building blocks at a glance. Acknowledgements We thank Rebecca Hummel and Sigrid Kober for the preparation of TMV, and Diether Gotthardt for taking care of the plants. For providing access to and maintaining TEM facilities we thank Prof. Dr. Stephan Nußberger and PD Dr. Michael

Molecular machines operating on the nanoscale: from classical to quantum

• Igor Goychuk

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 328–350, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.31

• stored in ATP molecules maintained at out-of-equilibrium concentrations, or in nonequilibrium ion concentrations across biological membranes. Conversely, they may replenish the reserves of metabolic energy using other sources of energy, for example, light by plants, or energy of covalent bonds of various

Time-dependent growth of crystalline Au⁰-nanoparticles in cyanobacteria as self-reproducing bioreactors: 2. Anabaena cylindrica

• Liz M. Rösken,
• Felix Cappel,
• Susanne Körsten,
• Christian B. Fischer,
• Andreas Schönleber,
• Sander van Smaalen,
• Stefan Geimer,
• Christian Beresko,
• Georg Ankerhold and
• Stefan Wehner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 312–327, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.30

• pathways utilize for example plants [13][14], bacteria [15][16][17][18][19][20] and fungi [21][22]. In living organisms the biosynthesis of nanoparticles is often done by enzymatic processes which convert in the end a dissolved ion into a structurally stable state. Later they may be excreted from the cell

Synthesis and applications of carbon nanomaterials for energy generation and storage

• Marco Notarianni,
• Jinzhang Liu,
• Kristy Vernon and
• Nunzio Motta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 149–196, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.17

• around 10,000 nuclear plants over the next 36 years [12]! Apart from the costs of building these nuclear plants, nuclear energy has associated risks and hazards. Nuclear plants are in fact very expensive to build, maintain and protect from attack. Not to mention that the disposal of nuclear waste has

Green and energy-efficient methods for the production of metallic nanoparticles

• Mitra Naghdi,
• Mehrdad Taheran,
• Satinder K. Brar,
• M. Verma,
• R. Y. Surampalli and
• J. R. Valero

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2354–2376, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.243

• , researchers had the opportunity to investigate eco-friendly reagents and new energy transfer techniques. In order to substitute the harmful reagents with green ones, researchers worked on different types of saccharides, polyols, carboxylic acids, polyoxometalates and extracts of various plants that can play

• chemists [81]. Synthesis and stabilization of NPs from bio-compatible materials is of high importance for their applications in medical diagnosis and therapeutics [87]. Among the vast number of available natural raw materials, polysaccharides and biologically active products extracted from plants provide

• GO. The bimetallic NPs were smaller than 10 nm [105]. Different green reagents that researchers tested for synthesis of NPs are listed in Table 2. The molecular structures of different green reagents are shown in Figure 3. Phytochemicals Phytochemicals are compounds that occur in plants and exhibit

Green synthesis, characterization and catalytic activity of natural bentonite-supported copper nanoparticles for the solvent-free synthesis of 1-substituted 1H-1,2,3,4-tetrazoles and reduction of 4-nitrophenol

• Akbar Rostami-Vartooni,
• Mohammad Alizadeh and
• Mojtaba Bagherzadeh

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2300–2309, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.236

• , the use of plants as a natural and biological source for biosynthesis of nanoparticles should be explored. Common thyme with the scientific name Thymus vulgaris is one of the plants indigenous to Iran which is valued for its antiseptic and antioxidant properties [19]. Thymol (1), carvacrol (2), p

Nanostructured superhydrophobic films synthesized by electrodeposition of fluorinated polyindoles

• Gabriela Ramos Chagas,
• Thierry Darmanin and
• Frédéric Guittard

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2078–2087, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.212

• , in both animals and plants, and allow them surviving against predators or hostile environments such as extremely humid or dry regions, for example [7][8][9][10][11][12]. Bioinspiration has shown the importance of developing structured surfaces in the presence of low surface energy materials that

NanoE-Tox: New and in-depth database concerning ecotoxicity of nanomaterials

• Katre Juganson,
• Angela Ivask,
• Irina Blinova,
• Monika Mortimer and
• Anne Kahru

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1788–1804, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.183

• . If it exceeds 1 t/year, short-term tests with aquatic invertebrates (preferred species is Daphnia) and plants (algae is preferred) must be conducted. In case of the production volume over 10 t/year additional short-term tests with fish and studies of activated sludge respiration must be performed

• t/year also terrestrial tests, short-term toxicity to invertebrates and plants and effects on soil microorganisms, must be performed. Finally, if the production volume for a certain substance exceeds 1,000 t/year, long-term terrestrial toxicity tests must be performed with invertebrates, plants

• FeOx NPs to fish. Interestingly, toxicity tests with plants have been conducted with all 8 NPs. While relatively many studies have been performed with bacteria, the majority of them consider the effects towards potentially pathogenic bacterial strains, e.g., Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae

Analysis of soil bacteria susceptibility to manufactured nanoparticles via data visualization

• Rong Liu,
• Yuan Ge,
• Patricia A. Holden and
• Yoram Cohen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1635–1651, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.166

• communities [18][19]; quantum dots (QDs) were linked to DNA damage of both freshwater mussels and gills [24]; and carbon nanotubes have been found to induce harmful effects to various organs (such as aquatic animals, bacteria, and plants) [25]. MNPs in soil can cause compositional changes to soil bacterial

Thermal energy storage – overview and specific insight into nitrate salts for sensible and latent heat storage

• Nicole Pfleger,
• Thomas Bauer,
• Claudia Martin,
• Markus Eck and
• Antje Wörner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1487–1497, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.154

• thermal stability which define the lower and upper limits of usable temperature in sensible heat storage systems. In latent storage systems the melting temperature defines the temperature at which the heat is stored. In thermal power plants the stored heat can be used to generate steam which drives

• salt handling. For sensible heat storage in solar power plants, a non-eutectic molten salt mixture consisting of 60 wt % sodium nitrate (NaNO3) and 40 wt % potassium nitrate (KNO3) is used. This mixture is usually known as “Solar Salt”. Due to the increased amount of NaNO3 as compared to the eutectic

• temperature of 270 °C approximately. In particular parabolic through plants with molten salt as a heat transfer fluid in the solar field require mixtures with lower melting temperatures to avoid salt freezing and to simplify the solar field operation. Therefore salt formulations need to be developed with a

Peptide-equipped tobacco mosaic virus templates for selective and controllable biomineral deposition

• Klara Altintoprak,
• Axel Seidenstücker,
• Alexander Welle,
• Sabine Eiben,
• Petia Atanasova,
• Nina Stitz,
• Alfred Plettl,
• Joachim Bill,
• Hartmut Gliemann,
• Holger Jeske,
• Dirk Rothenstein,
• Fania Geiger and
• Christina Wege

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1399–1412, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.145

• scaffolds because of their biological safety for humans, animals, and their commensal bacteria. TMV is a widespread plant-infecting pathogen, which can be isolated in large amounts from susceptible plants [40]. TMV particles are highly ordered, supramolecular complexes, consisting of a single-stranded

• modification of the TMV–CP sequence is, however, limited in view of the extent of alteration tolerated by virus particles upon their multiplication in plants, regarding number and composition of exchanged or inserted amino acids. In addition, high-throughput screening of different surface-expressed peptides is

• of mineralization-promoting peptides To nucleate and govern the deposition of silica shells, functionalized plant viral nanorod templates were generated by linker-assisted chemical conjugation of mineralization-active peptides to the outer surface of genetically modified TMVLys particles from plants

Simulation tool for assessing the release and environmental distribution of nanomaterials

• Haoyang Haven Liu,
• Muhammad Bilal,
• Anastasiya Lazareva,
• Arturo Keller and
• Yoram Cohen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 938–951, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.97

• the USA. Similarly, it has been reported that in Switzerland, biosolids are not applied to soil, and are instead processed in waste incineration plants [17]. The compartmental concentrations of CeO2 for the 12 countries were estimated via MendNano using the release rate estimates shown in Figure 12

Microwave assisted synthesis and characterisation of a zinc oxide/tobacco mosaic virus hybrid material. An active hybrid semiconductor in a field-effect transistor device

• Shawn Sanctis,
• Rudolf C. Hoffmann,
• Sabine Eiben and
• Jörg J. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 785–791, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.81

• derived from a linear fitting of the square root of the drain-source current (IDS) as a function of the gate–source voltage (VGS). Tobacco mosaic virus strain U1 was propagated in Nicotiana tabacum ‘Samsun’ nn plants for 25 days and purified according to the modified protocol of Gooding and Hebert [18

In situ observation of biotite (001) surface dissolution at pH 1 and 9.5 by advanced optical microscopy

• Chiara Cappelli,
• Daniel Lamarca-Irisarri,
• Jordi Camas,
• F. Javier Huertas and
• Alexander E. S. Van Driessche

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 665–673, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.67

• observation; pH effect; Introduction The study of the reactivity of silicate minerals is essential to understand numerous bio-geochemical processes. Silicate weathering plays an important role in the carbon cycle, the formation of soil and the nutrition of plants [1]. Moreover, the release of cations from

Green preparation and spectroscopic characterization of plasmonic silver nanoparticles using fruits as reducing agents

• Jes Ærøe Hyllested,
• Marta Espina Palanco,
• Nicolai Hagen,
• Klaus Bo Mogensen and
• Katrin Kneipp

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 293–299, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.27

• Jes Aeroe Hyllested Marta Espina Palanco Nicolai Hagen Klaus Bo Mogensen Katrin Kneipp Danmarks Tekniske Universitet DTU, Department of Physics and Department of Micro- and Nanotechnology, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark 10.3762/bjnano.6.27 Abstract Chemicals typically available in plants have the

• excitation. Keywords: fruits; green synthesis; luminescence; plants; plasmonics; SERS; silver cluster; silver nanoparticles; Introduction Metal nanoparticles in various size ranges play an increasingly important role in many different fields of science, technology and medicine ranging from applications as

• have the capability to reduce silver and gold salts and to create silver and gold nanoparticles [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. Many different chemical compounds are present in various parts of different plants. Polysaccharides, phenolics, flavoids to mention only a few, could serve as